The Ministry of Energy told how much coal is needed to pass the heating season

Coal stocks have increased compared to August, but Ukraine needs an additional 1 million tons to pass the autumn-winter period.

This was stated by the First Deputy Minister of Energy of Ukraine Yurii Vlasenko during the forum "Hot Autumn" organized by the Energy Club, Kosatka.Media reports.

According to him, the Ministry of Energy has developed two scenarios - baseline and crisis ones. According to the baseline scenario, it is assumed that the shortage of coal will be about 1 million tons. At the beginning of August, it was assumed that such a shortage would amount to 2.2 million tons.

“There is a tendency to increase the volume of coal stocks in warehouses. This concerns the extraction of Ukrainian mines, both private and state – this volume is supposed to be 11 million tons, and the attraction of export coal – about 4.5 million tons. Besides, for the passage of the autumn-winter period in the baseline scenario, we need 1 million tons,” the Deputy Minister said.

According to him, the situation was aggravated by the fact that most of the combined heat and power plants submitted applications stating that they were not able to operate on gas since it is expensive.

“This will force us to adjust our forecast balance, namely, to increase the production of nuclear and thermal power plants by reducing by 1.6 billion kWh by thermal power plants,” Vlasenko said.

He assured that at the same time the ministry took all the necessary measures, namely, they worked out the repair programs of the companies. Due to this, most of the power equipment will work in the autumn-winter period.

“About 14 nuclear power units will operate in winter. And it will be possible, if necessary, to connect the 15th block of nuclear power plants. Such dynamics gives a positive that we have to go through the autumn-winter period,” Vlasenko said.

He also added that Ukraine already faced a difficult situation with coal stocks, in particular, in 2019, 100 thousand tons less than now.

Tags: electricity, coal, heating season, The Ministry of Energy

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